Let’s take a break from politics for a moment, shall we?

Does anyone remember Dynamite magazine? This was a fluffy little publication aimed at school kids back in the ’70s. It contained articles about celebrities and the fads of the day, comic strips, humor columns, and “fun stuff” like mazes and crossword puzzles. If I remember correctly, it always came in conjunction with those Scholastic Book Club newsletters from which you could order cheap paperbacks, if you could talk your mom into giving you the money (mine was always a pushover when it came to buying me books). I recall that each classroom received one copy of the mag, which would get passed around until the pages were grease-stained and as soft as an old t-shirt from the constant handling.

Dynamite probably would’ve vanished into the murky corners of my mental attic long ago if it wasn’t for one particular issue that came out sometime in 1978. You can probably guess why I found that issue so notable: it included an article about my all-time favorite movie, Star Wars.

Like most kids my age, I had been completely obsessed with the film since the previous summer and every item I came across that had any connection at all with the greatest experience of my young life was something to be savored. The article in Dynamite was especially wonderful, though, because it revealed to me, for the first time, that George Lucas was planning to make a second Star Wars film.

Even more intoxicating than that, however, were the little tidbits contained in the article about what we might see in Star Wars 2 (that’s what the magazine was calling the sequel; in fact, that’s what all the vintage magazines I now have in my collection call it, which is partly why I tend to discount Uncle George’s claims of having the whole saga planned out before he ever shot the original film).

The article said that one of George’s ideas for the new movie was to have it take place before the one we’d already seen, a notion that seemed terribly bizarre — and yet very exciting — to my younger self. In a quote from George himself, which I read over and over again in a breathless trance, I learned that he was thinking of showing us an entire planet full of Wookiees, just like Chewbacca, and that we’d also see the legendary first time that Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader battled with their lightsabers. I was especially intrigued by the idea that they fought on the edge of a lava pit (lava being so fascinating to a seven-year-old boy), and that Vader slipped, fell into the molten rock, and was burned, which is why he needs that big suit to help him breathe. I’ve played that scene in my imagination hundreds of times over the years.
Last night, I saw a trailer for Revenge of the Sith on Access Hollywood. I saw an army of Wookiees on a wooded planet. And I saw this:

My eyes filled with tears at the sight of Obi-Wan and Anakin going at each other on the edge of a lava pit. George has screwed up a lot of things in the prequels, but not this. This looks right.

Lucas hasn’t entirely won me over yet. After the disappointment of Episodes I and II, I am a confirmed skeptic. But I am delighted that he has at least tried to realize the vision he described to a captivated seven-year-old boy through a cheesy little magazine way back in 1978. I feel like he’s fulfilling a very old promise with this image. The story and dialogue may suck, but I will finally get to see my planetful of Wookiees, and I will finally see the beginning of the circle that will end on the Death Star.

I’ve been smiling all day.

Incidentally, I read and re-read that issue of Dynamite so many times that my teacher finally tore out the Star Wars article and gave it to me. I still have it, four smudged and faded sheets of paper that introduced a boy to the idea that there was more to his favorite story…